St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-09-15
Stories of "Camp-Meeting John"
Boston Journal.

In the great fire at Pennington last
year, Mr.. Aliens house and goods were
burned, and he came to Boston to re-
side for time with friends. He spoke
frequently during the winter at relig-
ious meetings in this city, and during
the summer was in his old place on
the camp grounds. March z, 1885, Mr..
Allen celebrated his goth birthday
with his friends in this city. The old
man was in good spirits, and his rem
lnlscences came in a constant spark
ling stream. Asked about his expert
ence among the legislators at Augusta,
he replied:
ayes, l gave 'em scripture in the
legislature for two years, and didn't
need a Bible either. / can remem Der
whole chapters by heart. Read them
through and through, you know, but
didn't try to commit them. remem-
Der in the legislature 1 was called on
to pray for gOvernOr-and he wasn't
of the same politics as /. So 1 just
prayed that he might be the best gov
ernOr i'll the state, If possible Then
there was another governor, and he
differed from me, too. L prayed that
he might be as wise as a serpent and
as harmless as dove.'"
"HOw did you pray for the legisla-
tors, Mr.. Allen Z"
"The legislators L just prayed,
% Lord, enable them to condense and
to be able to stop when they get
through One day l went to the SEN
ate to Officiate, and l pray ed there
that the Lord might enable them to
bring order out of chaos and confu-
sion. The president reproved me for
it, but | asked him if that wasn't what
he wanted"
He was asked if he ever used manu-
script. He never did. s'I used to be
at political conventions where Mr..
Blaine was" he continued, "and made
a prayer there once which Blaine
wanted copy of. He sent to me and
offered compensation for a copy. l re-
piled that didn't write out my prayers,
and if l did they were not for SALE"
.'Do you read much nowadays 2"
81 read the newspapers every day."
"Anything else 2"
SO, the Bible, the Bible, every day"
The subject branched upon the re-
cent news of the inaugural. eyes,"
said the veteran citizen of Maine, al
luding to Mr.. Cleveland 81 want to
see how they are extOlling that pious
man. l read his address through, and
don't see anything so terrible bad or
deep in it. 1t was commonplace some
things could be construed either one
way or the other" Mr.. Allen told
how he had ''cornered" lawyer in his
town on election day. "Allen," said
the man of legal requirements, chow
are you going to vote l want to
know, for Pm determined to vote the
opposite" Like a ball from a rife
came the reply, quick and to the point,
'I'm going to vote right" "By
George" exclaimed he of the bar,
"yOu've got me-"
There was revival in Franklin
county, Maine, and the presiding elder
failed to get around in time. Finally,
after tedious delay he came, and
then he preached to the young con-
verts, who had been waiting SO long,
for a full hour and 20 minutes from the
text, "Feed my Lambs" When he
had ended his lengthy discourse Mr..
Allen arose from his seat and 'fdeclar-
ed that in order for lambs to do we'll
three things were necessary. First,
feed 'em in season second, give 'em
little at a time, and third, give it to
em warm" Whether the worthy ell
der learned the significance of the
little postlude remains unknown; prob
ably he appreciated the point.
Another time, at meeting of Meth
odist ministers, there happened to be
a Baptist divine. The assembly was
discussing the question, "Methodist
doctrine and economy" and in cOurte-
sy called upon the stranger for his
opinion. He declared that MethOdists
accomplished a great deal, no doubt,
there was too much machinery attach
ed to their economy. The chairman
called upon Brother Allen for his Opin-
ion. "Well," he said, ''there may be
considerable machinery in MethOdism,
but it don't take quite so much water
to run it,"